Someone To Confide In
by starrrz
Summary: Vlad/Erin. Erin has another secret to keep.


Erin shut the door behind her and sagged with relief. It didn't last long. Vlad had tried to hide it, but she could tell. He had been hurt that she had said she couldn't spend time with him.

She sank onto the edge of the coffin, buried her face in her hands and tried not to give into the tears.

That was the problem.

She and Vlad had already spent too much time together.

* * *

><p>The following morning Becky was grating on her nerves.<p>

"You're looking really pale," Becky said, leaning back in her chair and ignoring her history coursework. "If you like, at break, you can borrow some of my bronzing powder."

Erinshook her head, stared unseeingly at the textbook in front of her. She wished, in a way, that she could tell Becky. Confide in her and trust in her advice, like she would have done with her friends before - before she had had to move. Before events had conspired against her.

Becky went on obliviously, "Just because you've done the chasing, it doesn't mean you can stop making any effort. Look at _her_," she said, gesturing at one of the celebrity magazines they had already been warned against reading during school hours. "It's no wonder he cheated."

She had to stand then, couldn't help it. Miss. Baines looked up at her, expectantly, but Erin just made for the door, didn't wait for permission,

"I'm sorry; I need to go to the bathroom."

* * *

><p>Erin let her forehead rest against the cool glass of the mirror, willing the nausea to subside and her stomach to stop churning.<p>

It couldn't be happening. Not now, not here.

There were footsteps behind her, the sound of a bag dropping to the floor. She hoped they weren't going to ask questions, she wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with it.

"I brought your stuff for you."

It was Becky. Erin smiled, weakly, and turned to face her.

"You look awful," Becky said bluntly before she had chance to voice her thanks. "If I were you I'd go back to bed, Erin."

* * *

><p>Vlad came to sit with her without her asking, and he was so sweet, and so concerned, that she couldn't find it in her to ask to be left alone again.<p>

"Can I get you anything?" Vlad asked, softly, like he was afraid of being too loud and hurting her, and it made her curl into her pillows. He was too young to deal with this, too inexperienced. They both were.

Eventually Vlad stopped fussing, choosing instead to hold her hand and stroke at her forehead.

That had been how it had all started. Gentle, barely there, touches, and chaste kisses. He hadn't known what he was doing, she could tell, at least beyond the barest bones of the theory, and she could have put a stop to it before it went too far. The thought struck her that she _should _have.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Vlad asked, when the Count yelled to call him to dinner.

She managed a smile, didn't let it slip until he had stepped out into the corridor. It was too late now; there was no point in beating herself up over it.

* * *

><p>Erin was used to keeping secrets. To making up stories to explain why she couldn't go with her friends to the cinema, or after school clubs, when really she needed to be at slaying practice. To pretending to be something she wasn't.<p>

Ingrid wasn't around to notice, and Wolfie frowned up at her, confused, when he caught her being sick. But it was easy enough to cover her tracks, to lie and bluff and almost convince herself to believe her version.

It surprised her that it was relief she felt when somebody finally saw through her.

"Anything you say to me will stay within this office," Miss. McCauley told her and, though she was mortified, Erin started crying.

"Have you been to a doctor?" She was asked, because it was the obvious first question, andErinshook her head and soaked through another tissue. She couldn't. They would want to know, and they would look for her medical records and, perhaps, they would be able to tell, and that didn't bear thinking about. Aloud she said,

"I know. It's been months. I can't button my blazer."

"Have you decided what you're going to do?" asked, softly, because this wasn't the first time she'd had a girl in tears in her office over this news, and it wouldn't be the last, unfortunately.

Erinshook her head, cried still harder.

"I don't have any idea."

* * *

><p>Bertrand was waiting for her. She wasn't too proud to admit that she was afraid of him; he was the kind of the vampire the Guild offered extra training for. Clever, scheming, <em>devious<em>.

"Do you understand what you've done?" He demanded, gaze too intense, tone too threatening.

Erinheld her chin high, refused to show that she was intimidated, though she had been unable to think of anything else for weeks now. Vampiresses who carried half human children were common enough, but the Guild had never come across a human who had survived long enough to give birth to a vampire half breed.

Bertrand smiled, though it only made her shiver, and his eyes flickered from her face to her stomach and back again.

"Just because _they_ don't know about it, doesn't mean it's impossible. We will play this to our advantage."

The words spoke of plotting, intrigue and strategy, andErinwished she could be anywhere else. That she could be back at home, and Ryan could put his arm about her shoulders and tell her that it would all be okay somehow, and that he'd be there for her, no matter what, because she was his little sister. When she opened her eyes she was still in the darkened Garside corridor, and it was Bertrand who leaned in too close, expression serious,

"Tell him or I'll do it for you."

* * *

><p>Vlad was so happy at being asked to her room that Erin felt guilty, averted her gaze when she had shut the door behind her.<p>

This was how it had been, awkward and just a little embarrassing, especially in the aftermath when Vlad had tried to act like it hadn't been new to him, and she hadn't wanted to shatter his illusions.

"I have to tell you something," she managed, the words quiet.

It was the right thing to do, even if that hadn't been Bertrand's motivation. She couldn't forget the broken look on Vlad's face when he had accused her of only ever confiding in him when she had to. She wanted to do it now, before she couldn't hide it any longer.

"What's that?" Vlad asked, tone light and joking. "You're not throwing me over for Renfield, are you?"

"I'm pregnant," she blurted, because there was no better way to say it.

Vlad's face dropped, she heard him swallowing.

"Are you sure?" He asked, rhetorically. "Is it mine? No, sorry, I didn't mean that."

Erin shut her eyes, wished for it all to be over. She had nowhere to go and, with Ryan loyal to Ingrid, no-one to turn to.

She startled at the touch of fingers to her shoulder, opened her eyes to see Vlad standing before her. He looked pale, paler than usual, but he was holding his head high, and his jaw was set in determination.

"I don't know how it will work, what exactly will happen. But we're in this together, whatever you decide to do I'll support you."

It hadn't been what she had been expected. Perhaps she hadn't given Vlad enough credit.

"Really?" She whispered, because she hadn't even decided yet what she was going to do about it. Vlad took her hand, squeezed it, and nodded,

"I mean it."

* * *

><p><strong><em>Wanted to get it up now before it's all completely AU-ified by today's ep. ...I actually wrote het in a YA fandom. See those pigs, they are flying!<em>**


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